I'm curious about strains of cannabis getting famous in general, but I assume now days a lot of this can be linked to the internet and cannabis culture. But how did strains like Maui Wowie and Acapulco Gold get famous back in the day? Was there some precursor to "high times" magazine? Or was it purely just word of mouth that popularized certain strains?
Cool, a topic I love!
Those particular cannabis strains were both landrace strains, especially during a particular period of time where extensive breeding and phenotype hunting wasn't done to the level that exists today. The reason they became so famous is because of a few factors, which made access to them much more prevalent than more selective processes for phenotype and strain hunting. At the time they emerged in popular culture, the security of borders allowed for easy transmission of huge amounts of cheap, naturally occurring cannabis to flow through global markets, but particularly in North America. In the 60's or 70's, you could basically take a boat from Florida anywhere in the carribean or south American gulf , load up your craft, and return to Florida with little to no risk of running into coast authorities.
The majority of cannabis cultivation during this period would happen in Colombia and Mexico, where many methods of export such as being mixed in with coffee and other contraband would be utilized. More than 2/3 of cannabis consumed in the US would come out of Colombia and Mexico before the Nixon era war on drugs began in 1973, which saw a huge crackdown and more focus on deterring smuggling operations, especially in Colombia. American smugglers like High Times co-founder Richard Stratton would contribute to American access to cannabis, which he talks about in his memoirs, particularly 'Smuggler's Blues'
Landrace strains are strains that naturally exist in an environment or region, and grow (just like weeds) with no human input. A quick rule of thumb(but not necessarily always true of landraces) is that a landrace strain includes the region in the name. For some smokers, landraces remain incredibly desirable as they are often attributed with more natural cultivation processes.
A cool, unrelated fact I learned from Narcos: mexico - Rafael Caro-Quintero 'Rafa', one of the most notorious Narcos and a key figure in Pablo Escobars cartel along with the Guadalajara cartel played a key role in the mass production of sensimillia or 'seedless' cannabis flower.
In terms of why those particular strains would become so synonymous with cannabis culture is due to their reference in popular culture, like High Times, or Cheech and Chong.
Sources:
MARIJUANA BOOM: THE RISE AND FALL OF COLOMBIA’S FIRST DRUG PARADISE Britto, Lina Publisher: Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2020.
Smuggler's Blues: A true story of the hippie mafia Richard Stratton Publisher: Simon & Schuster April 5, 2016